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Sunday, May 6, 2007

I decided to write to the Premier and ask him to consider changing the governments policy as part of their election platform. I explained that the burden was hard on the Jewish community and it is causing people to leave the province (aka make Aliyah).

I passionately believe that universally accessible, high-quality public education is the cornerstone of a just society and the key to our long-term prosperity. And our government believes in excellent public education for all our children: we want to ensure they get the tools they need to succeed. That's why our number one priority is to invest in public education and make needed improvements.

My colleagues and I remain committed to providing a public education system that's open to all students regardless of religious or cultural background. Our goal is to make Ontario's public education the best. As we work toward that goal, we'll continue to uphold our constitutional obligations and fund public and separate schools fully.

Our government recognizes that there are many hard-working families who make sacrifices to send their children to faith-based schools. We have the utmost respect for your views and those of other Ontarians who disagree with our government's stance on funding for independent or religious schools. However, we remain deeply committed to restoring confidence in and stability to our public education system.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

In March rookie Conservative MP Mike Lake presented a 500 name petition from is constituents. It called for the addition of Big Foot to Canada's list of endangered species. It is going to be discussed by the government next week.

With all of the name calling of the past few weeks, I wonder what insults are going to be thrown at people who are against this motion. It is also interesting that every single news source I have found does not refer to the party he belongs to. Perhaps it is too scandalous to refer to a Conservative MP as caring about the environment. Even if it is too protect imaginary species.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

On Monday the Bloc Quebecois tried to stir up trouble by complaining that Shane Doan is the captain for Team Canada at the World Hockey Championships. (Keep in mind the BQ have demanded that Quebec field it's own team for international hockey tournaments).Bloc MP cares about Canada

In 2005 Doan was involved in a verbal incident with a NHL ref and received a game misconduct. He allegedly made an anti French slur to the French Canadian referee. The NHL investigated and no further disciplinary action was taken.

Instead of seeing through this stupid rant the opposition MPs joined in the calls for the government to issue a statement that they were unhappy with the decision. NDP leader Jack Layton stated that it would "cast a shadow" on the team. Opposition & Liberal Leader Stephan Dione commented that the fact the government had not issued a statement was "shocking". The government basically responded that this was not a government issue.

On Tuesday things really got stupid. All parties agreed that officials from Hockey Canada and Sport Canada are to report to the House of Commons' Official Languages Committee on Thursday to explain the decision to make Doan captain.

While the Canadian uniform is Red & White, last time I checked the letters CCCP do not appear anywhere on their uniform. The government has absolutely no business interfering with the day to day business of hockey operations. Doan could have stayed home with his 4 kids, instead he chose to try to bring home a gold medal. The decision of who should be captain is a coaches decision based on what he feels will be in the best interest of the team. Every single MP should be hanging their head in shame for allowing this to happen.

Since 2000 the City of Toronto has spent over 1 Billion dollars from various contingency funds to help make ends meet. At one point they even sold the hydro poles to the province to help get some extra cash. The city has almost no reserve funds left. Council has even approved a plan to sue the Ontario Government to try to balance this years budget. In the recent election Mayor Miller got reelected with a campaign that the Provincial and Federal Governments should be kicking in more money to help the city. He would campaign to make this happen and hold property tax increases to the rate of inflation. He was unsuccessful as this years Provincial and Federal budget's did not do very much to help the city. A 3.8% property tax hike has been approved which is higher than the rate of inflation. Council also failed to remove a single one of their many perks that come with the job.

The city's executive committee has asked the integrity commissioner to investigate two councillor for not spending enough money, Rob Ford is known for spending his own personal money on office expenses instead of dipping into the public purse. "You're not supposed to accept gifts, even from yourself," Giorgio Mammoliti said. The investigation will need approval from council next month before it can proceed.How stupid of a statement is this? I understand that we want to make sure that bribes are not being used to influence city councillors judgement. How do you bribe yourself? It would be one thing if these councillors had maxed out there budget and were using private or 3rd party funds to make up the shortfall. In these cases they are coming in way under budget and could have had the city cover these costs.

If only these politicians spent more time worrying about how to balance the books, we could have a city that wasn't falling apart.